I have had much better luck at my Lafayette and Orinda QTH’s than I would have expected. This illustration – from the ARRL Antenna Book tells the story. Both QTH’s are right where the “Best” is shown. And both QTH’s had the down slope to the West and uphill to the East. Both were pretty good from 0 degrees going counter clockwise to 180…

The Collins 180S-1 Antenna Tuner I found a second Collins 180S-1 antenna tuner – this time in original (unmodified) shape. In fact, I will take the first one I purchased and return it to its original state. A fellow did a great job adding a directional coupler to it – but I will be using these out back in waterproof cases at the base…

2018 and 2019 look eerily like 2008 and 2009 as far as DXing and Sunspots are concerned [Stop me if you’ve heard this one before – hi hi . . . ] Back in 2008 – Petrus was in his tent on Bouvet. I heard him and called him. I remember he had a low voice – not particularly loud or clear. He only…

I was very pleasantly surprised this morning when 3B7A was calling for West Coast on 20M. It was 1430z or so, and they had a strong signal and worked many West Coast stations. We won’t get much worse than this condition wise, and while the French Team has mentioned that Glorioso is their version of “Navassa”, it still does seem possible. I don’t expect…

Several people have pointed out that the French Team who activated Tromelin and Juan de Nova (led by Seb, F5UFX), reports that Glorioso is pretty much off limits – in a similar way that the US F&W entities are off limits. In fact, they said their application was rejected. They also were turned down for Crozet – (I already have that). I worked FT5WJ,…

2018, 19 and 20 look like 2008, 2009 and 2010 Looking at the coming of 2+ years at the bottom of Cycle 24 going into 25, and thoughts of Bouvet pop in my mind. Its a mini cliff hanger: “Who will activate Bouvet before (even) 20M closes down?” FT5GA activated Glorioso in Sept / October 2009, when even 20M was dead. Their team completely…

In just over a month from now, if all goes well, I will only need Glorioso to get to the ARRL’s DXCC “Top of Honor Roll”. Glorioso is #12 on the DXCC Most Wanted List as documented by Clublog. Its interesting how close it is to Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte. It has an airstrip, but this is not for commercial flights. I talked to…

I don’t know if there are more than one French team that could possibly activate Glorioso, but if the team that is activating St. Brandon – 3B7 – does try to activate Glorioso (right now its #12 on the list), then it would be activated at the earliest in 2020. I say this because its nearly impossible to activate an expensive place in any…

For all low bands, 160-30M, my own designed “Modified Bobtail” is a very clear winner. I’ve blogged extensively about this antenna, and the best antenna tuner for this antenna – and my favorite antenna tuner of all time is the Palstar BT1500A. Every feature, knob and button is useful and perfect for the Mod Bob. The best yagi antenna I have ever had was…